Formation of electron depletion layer and parallel electric field in the separatrix region of anti-parallel magnetic reconnection

It is generally accepted that during collisionless magnetic reconnection, electrons flow toward the X line in the separatrix region, and then an electron depletion layer is formed.In this paper, with two-dimensional(2 D) particle-in-cell(PIC)simulation, we investigate the characteristics of the separatrix region during magnetic reconnection.In addition to the electron depletion layer, we find that there still exists an electric field parallel to the magnetic field in the separatrix region.Because a reduced ion-to-electron mass ratio and light speed are usually used in PIC simulation models, we also change these parameters to analyze the characteristics of the separatrix region.It is found that the increase in the ion-to-electron mass ratio makes the electron depletion layer and the parallel electric field more obvious, while the influence of light speed is less pronounced.     

The morphology of electrostatic tripolar regions

Electrostatic tripolar regions in plasmas develop a skewness of their own electric potential waveform as a peculiar morphological property, which distinguishes them from symmetric electrostatic solitary waves. Within the collision-less, kinetic treatment developed here, this property holds if the velocity distributions of electrons and ions are singular in value, irrespective of their smoothness at the region’s boundary and of the smoothness of the potential waveform and of the electron and ion density distributions. These singularities are integrable, and are of the logarithmic and jump type: the former occur at isolated points in phase space; the latter occur on the left branch of the electron separatrix and on the left branch of the ion sub-separatrix. The distributions are non-negative if, at its local extrema, the potential waveform is skewed to the left, in agreement with observations, and if the skewness is smaller than a given bound: a sufficient condition for such skewness to be small about the minimum of the potential waveform is that a sufficiently fast electron beam exists on the high-potential boundary of the tripolar region. In those special cases in which the particle distributions are continuous in value, the above mentioned singularities affect their space and velocity derivatives. These results could be extracted from very general considerations on the degree of smoothness of the spatial distribution of the electric potential and on the non-negativity of the electron and ion distributions, without the assistance of any specific models.     

电子温度对霍尔推进器等离子体鞘层特性的影响

采用二维粒子模拟方法研究了霍尔推进器通道中电子温度对等离子体鞘层特性的影响, 讨论了不同电子温度下电子数密度、鞘层电势、电场及二次电子发射系数的变化规律. 结果表明: 当电子温度较低时, 鞘层中电子数密度沿径向方向呈指数下降, 在近壁处达到最小值, 鞘层电势降和电场径向分量变化均较大, 壁面电势维持一稳定值不变, 鞘层稳定性好; 当电子温度较高时, 鞘层区内与鞘层边界处电子数密度基本相等, 而在近壁面窄区域内迅速增加, 壁面处达到最大值, 鞘层电势变化缓慢, 电势降和电场径向分量变化均较小, 壁面电势近似维持等幅振荡, 鞘层稳定性降低; 电子温度对电场轴向分量影响较小; 随电子温度的增大, 壁面二次电子发射系数先增大后减少. 关键词： 霍尔推进器 等离子体鞘层 电子温度 粒子模拟     

Generation of Electric Field and Net Charge in Hall Reconnection

Generation of Hall electric field and net charge associated initial conditions of plasma density and magnetic field. with magnetic reconnection is studied under different With inclusion of the Hall effects, decoupling of the electron and ion motions leads to the formation of a narrow layer with strong electric field and large net charge density along the separatrix. The asymmetry of the plasma density or magnetic field or both across the current sheet will largely increase the magnitude of the electric field and net charge. The results indicate that the asymmetry of the magnetic field is more effective in producing larger electric field and charge density. The electric field and net charge are always much larger in the low density or/and high magnetic field side than those in the high density or/and low magnetic field side. Both the electric field and net charge density are linearly dependent on the ratios of the plasma density or the square of the magnetic field across the current sheet. For the case with both initial asymmetries of the magnetic field and density, rather large Hall electric field and charge density are generated.     

Nonlinear resonance of plasma waves in the thermal irregularities of ionospheric plasma

We study the effect of striction plasma density disturbances on the generation intensity of longitudional cold and plasma oscillations due to polarization of the magnetic field-aligned ionospheric plasma irregularities with δN_o<0 by a powerful radio wave. It is assumed that the plasma density level inside the irregularity intersects the upper-hybrid resonance level, in the vicinity of which the cold oscillations excited directly by a powerful radio wave are transformed to shorter-wave plasma oscillations. We consider the short plasma wave limit to reduce the problem to a system of two coupled equations for the cold wave induction and plasma wave electric field. The first equation is supplemented by a local source equal to the integral of the plasma wave electric field in the resonance region. The second equation involves the cold wave induction at the resonance point and describes the electric field of interacting waves in the resonance vicinity. We use simplifications connected with the small absorption of plasma waves propagating inside the irregularity and weak radiation of these waves outside the irregularity. These conditions correspond to the generation of eigenmodes of plasma oscillations trapped in the irregularity. We have obtained a resonance-type nonlinear equation for the electric field intensity (or energy flux) of eigenmode plasma waves with allowance for striction disturbances of the plasma density profile in the resonance region. It is shown that the striction expulsion of plasma is responsible for the occurrence of coefficients describing the change in the intensity of excitation and radiation of plasma waves at the irregularity boundary. Such an expulsion leads to variations of the efficient generation band of plasma eigenmodes with the total phase increment of the wave in the irregularity. It also leads to a change in the phase shift of the plasma wave reflected from the resonance. These coefficients and the nonlinear phase shift are expressed in terms of real wave functions of the nonlinear Airy equation which describes the electric field of the excited waves in the resonance vicinity when the dissipation is absent. Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation, Russian Academy of Sciences, Troitsk, Moscow region, Russia. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 41, No. 3, pp. 270–297, March, 1998.     

Electron acceleration and type II radio emission at quasi-parallel shock waves

Solar type II radio bursts are interpreted as the radio signature of shock waves travelling through the solar corona. Some of these shock waves are able to enter into the interplanetary medium and are observed as interplanetary type II bursts. The nonthermal radio emission of these bursts indicates that electrons are accelerated up to superthermal and/or relativistic velocities at the corresponding shocks. Plasma wave measurements at interplanetary shock waves support the assumption that the fundamental type II radio emission is generated by wave-wave interactions of electron plasma waves and ion acoustic waves and that the source region is located near the transition region of the shock. Therefore, the instantaneous bandwidth of type II bursts should reflect the density jump across the shock. Comparing the theoretically predicted density jump of coronal shock waves (Rankine-Hugoniot relations) and the measured instantaneous bandwidth of solar type II radio bursts it is appropriate to assume that these bursts are generated by weak supercritical quasi-parallel shock waves. Two different mechanisms for the accelaration of electrons at this kind of shock waves are investigated in the form of test particle calculations in given magnetic and electric fields. These fields have been extracted from in-situ measurements at the quasi-parallel region at Earth’s bow shock, which showed large amplitude magnetic field fluctuations (so-called SLAMS: Short Large Amplitude Magnetic Field Structures) as constituent parts. The first mechanism treats these structures as strong magnetic mirrors, at which charged particles are reflected and accelerated. Thus, thermal electrons gain energy due to multiple reflections between two approaching SLAMS. The second mechanism shows that it is possible to accelerate electrons inside a single SLAMS due to a noncoplanar component of the magnetic field in these structures. Both mechanism are described in the form of test particle calculations, which are supplemented by calculations according to adiabatic theory. The results are discussed for circumstances in the solar corona and in interplanetary space.     

抑制超短电子脉冲展宽的补偿方法

 提出了一种有效的利用补偿元件抑制空间电荷效应所致脉冲展宽的方法。此元件为一轴对称的圆柱形空腔,金属侧壁和供脉冲输出的端面金属栅网接地以保持0电位,供脉冲进入空腔的端面小孔的内壁涂导电层并施以正电位,通过选择此端面的介电常数分布而在此端面上形成特定的电位分布。如此形成的补偿元件内部电场能够在不引入附加电子能量弥散的基础上,在空点电荷效应所致脉冲展宽极为严重的纵向和横向这两个主要方向上,均能够有效地抑制空间电荷效应,从而起到补偿电子脉冲展宽的作用。     

A Microwave Air Plasma Source under Atmospheric Pressure

We develop a new cavity with a mode similar to TE13 to produce microwave plasma, named APMPS Ⅱ, which is able to produce a mass of air plasma with diameter of around 6 cm, equipped with about 3 kW input power under one atmosphere. The plasma seems to be homogeneous without significant filamentous discharge as observed by common camera device. We present the theory of this cavity, show the distribution of electric field of several planes inside the cavity and give some experimental results.     

Field of an Electric Dipole Surrounded by a Small Plasma Spheroid with a Cavity

We obtain and analyze a solution of the boundary-value problem for the field of an electric dipole centered in a vacuum cavity inside a small plasma spheroid. The influence of the cavity size on the field enhancement in an outer vacuum region is analyzed as a function of the curvature of the plasma-spheroid surface. The results are compared with the case of a sphere with similar cavity.__________Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 48, No. 2, pp. 142–151, February 2005     

The Role of Radial Electric Fields in the Tokamaks TEXTOR-94, CASTOR, and T-10

Radial electric fields (E _r) and their role in the establishment of edge transport barriers and improved confinement have been studied in the tokamaks TEXTOR-94 and CASTOR, where E _r is externally applied to the plasma in a controlled way using a biased electrode, as well as in the tokamak T-10 where an edge transport barrier (H-mode) is obtained during electron-cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) of the plasma.The physics of radial currents was studied and the radial conductivity in the edge of TEXTOR-94 (R = 1.75 m, a = 0.46 m) was found to be dominated by recycling (ion-neutral collisions) at the last closed flux surface (LCFS) and by parallel viscosity inside the LCFS. From a performance point of view (edge engineering), such electrode biasing was shown to induce a particle transport barrier, a reduction of particle transport, and a concomitant increase in energy confinement. An H-mode-like behaviour can be induced both with positive and negative electric fields. Positive as well as negative electric fields were shown to strongly affect the exhaust of hydrogen, helium, and impurities, not only in the H-mode-like regime.The impact of sheared radial electric fields on turbulent structures and flows at the plasma edge is investigated on the CASTOR tokamak (R = 0.4 m, a = 0.085 m). A non-intrusive biasing scheme that we call "separatrix biasing" is applied whereby the electrode is located in the scrape-off layer (SOL) with its tip just touching the LCFS. There is evidence of strongly sheared radial electric field and E×B flow, resulting in the formation of a transport barrier at the separatrix. Advanced probe diagnosis of the edge region has shown that the E×B shear rate that arises during separatrix biasing is larger than for standard edge plasma biasing. The plasma flows, especially the poloidal E×B drift velocity, are strongly modified in the sheared region, reaching Mach numbers as high as half the sound speed. The corresponding shear rates ( 5×10⁶ s^-1) derived from both the flow and electric field profiles are in excellent agreement and are at least an order of magnitude higher than the growth rate of unstable turbulent modes as estimated from fluctuation measurements.During ECRH in the tokamak T-10 (R = 1.5 m, a = 0.3 m), a regime of improved confinement is obtained with features resembling those in the H-mode in other tokamaks. Using a heavy ion beam probe, a narrow potential well is observed near the limiter together with the typical features of the L-H transition. The time evolution of the plasma profiles during L-H and H-L transitions is clearly correlated with that of the density profile and the formation of a transport barrier near the limiter. The edge electric field is initially positive after the onset of ECRH. It changes its sign during the L-H transition and grows till a steady condition is reached. Similar to the biasing experiments in TEXTOR-94 and CASTOR, the experimentally observed transport barrier is a barrier for particles.     

从聚酰亚胺单分子链电荷陷阱特性的改变探讨体材料的沿面放电现象

沿面放电是破坏绝缘系统性能的原因之一.聚酰亚胺常用于高频电力设备的气-固绝缘中,为此利用密度泛函理论,从原子分子层面探讨了在外电场下聚酰亚胺及其受极性基团OH~–影响后的单分子链结构、能级与态密度、静电势、激发态等微观参数对陷阱形成以及沿面放电的影响.结果表明,外电场下,聚酰亚胺分子结构卷曲,偶极矩增加,易于积聚电荷形成空间电荷中心,尤属引入极性基团OH~–后变化较明显;聚酰亚胺分子中,苯环区域形成空穴陷阱,酰亚胺环区域形成电子陷阱,且电子陷阱能级的数量较多,其中空间电荷陷阱深度随外电场的增加逐渐变深;聚酰亚胺分子在引入极性基团OH~–后激发能降低,使得分子内部的电子变得容易被激发;电子与空穴的空间分离度随电场增加而降低,利于空穴与电子的复合而发出光子.     

Observation of a chiral state in a microwave cavity

A microwave experiment has been realized to measure the phase difference of the oscillating electric field at two points inside the cavity. The technique has been applied to a dissipative resonator which exhibits a singularity-called exceptional point-in its eigenvalue and eigenvector spectrum. At the singularity, two modes coalesce with a phase difference of pi/2. We conclude that the state excited at the singularity has a definitive chirality.     

Possibility of suppressing quantum light fluctuations when excess photon fluctuations occur inside a cavity

Using the optical excitation of a high-Q cavity as an example, it is shown that when light is observed at the output of this cavity, effective suppression of the photocurrent shot noise below the quantum limit is in general independent of the parameters of the stationary state of the field oscillator (in particular, it is independent of the rms photon fluctuations) inside the cavity and can occur not only at any allowed negative value but even at a positive value of the Mandel parameter. It was assumed in solving the problem that the cavity is optically excited by superimposing the radiation of a sub-Poisson laser and a laser with excess photon noise. A formal solution was obtained in terms of the kinetic equation for the density matrix of the actual fields (inside the laser cavities and the empty cavity), which is derived here on the basis of the Heisenberg-Langevin quantum equations, taking into account directed propagation of the field from the laser cavities inside the empty cavity. The resulting kinetic equation can also be used to solve other physical problems, since it is applicable to optical systems that contain, in principle, an arbitrary number of coupled cavities and interference mixers. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 111, 1579–1600 (May 1997)     

Singular orbital magnetism of graphene

The origin of the singular diamagnetic susceptibility at the Dirac point is probed through the study of effects of band-gap opening and spatially varying magnetic field. In the presence of a band gap, the susceptibility is nonzero only inside the band gap and exhibits a discrete jump at the band edges down to zero in the conduction and valence bands. The jump height is understood in terms of the pseudo-spin paramagnetism arising from valley degree of freedom. In spatially varying magnetic field with wave vector q, the susceptibility becomes nonzero only in a finite energy region containing the Dirac point, determined by q. This behavior is understood in terms of electronic states numerically calculated in periodic magnetic field.     

On the absence of stable periodic orbits in domains of separatrix crossings in nonsymmetric slow-fast Hamiltonian systems

We consider a two degree of freedom Hamiltonian system with one degree of freedom corresponding to fast motion and the other corresponding to slow motion. We assume that at frozen values of the slow variables there is a separatrix on the phase plane of the fast variables and there is a region in the phase space (the domain of separatrix crossings) where projections of phase points onto the plane of the fast variables repeatedly cross the separatrix in the process of evolution of the slow variables. Under rather general conditions, we prove that there are no stable periodic trajectories of any prescribed period inside the domain of separatrix crossings, except maybe for periodic trajectories passing anomalously close to the saddle point.     

Electron acceleration and type II radio emission at quasi-parallel shock waves

Solar type II radio bursts are interpreted as the radio signature of shock waves travelling through the solar corona. Some of these shock waves are able to enter into the interplanetary medium and are observed as interplanetary type II bursts. The nonthermal radio emission of these bursts indicates that electrons are accelerated up to superthermal and/or relativistic velocities at the corresponding shocks. Plasma wave measurements at interplanetary shock waves support the assumption that the fundamental type II radio emission is generated by wave-wave interactions of electron plasma waves and ion acoustic waves and that the source region is located near the transition region of the shock. Therefore, the instantaneous bandwidth of type II bursts should reflect the density jump across the shock. Comparing the theoretically predicted density jump of coronal shock waves (Rankine-Hugoniot relations) and the measured instantaneous bandwidth of solar type II radio bursts it is appropriate to assume that these bursts are generated by weak supercritical quasi-parallel shock waves. Two different mechanisms for the accelaration of electrons at this kind of shock waves are investigated in the form of test particle calculations in given magnetic and electric fields. These fields have been extracted from in-situ measurements at the quasi-parallel region at Earth’s bow shock, which showed large amplitude magnetic field fluctuations (so-called SLAMS: Short Large Amplitude Magnetic Field Structures) as constituent parts. The first mechanism treats these structures as strong magnetic mirrors, at which charged particles are reflected and accelerated. Thus, thermal electrons gain energy due to multiple reflections between two approaching SLAMS. The second mechanism shows that it is possible to accelerate electrons inside a single SLAMS due to a noncoplanar component of the magnetic field in these structures. Both mechanism are described in the form of test particle calculations, which are supplemented by calculations according to adiabatic theory. The results are discussed for circumstances in the solar corona and in interplanetary space. Astrophysikalisches Institut, Observatorium für solare Radioastronomie, Potsdam, Germany. Published from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 84–104, January, 1998.     

Study of a magnetic alloy-loaded RF cavity for bunch compression at the CSR

The Heavy Ion Research Facility and Cooling Storage Ring(HIRFL-CSR)accelerator in Lanzhou offers a unique possibility for the generation of high density and short pulse heavy ion beams by non-adiabatic bunch compression longitudinally,which is implemented by a fast jump of the RF-voltage amplitude.For this purpose,an RF cavity with high electric field gradient loaded with Magnetic Alloy cores has been developed.The results show that the resonant frequency range of the single-gap RF cavity is from 1.13 MHz to 1.42 MHz,and a maximum RF voltage of 40 kV with a total length of 100 cm can be obtained,which can be used to compress heavy ion beams of 238U72+ with 250 MeV/u from the initial bunch length of 200 ns to 50 ns with the coaction of the two single-gap RF cavity mentioned above.     

Self-consistent diverted tokamak equilibria with nonzero edge current

The semi-analytical method, previously used to construct model double-null and single-null diverted tokamak equi- libria (Bingren Shi, Plasma Phys. Control Fusion 50 (2008) 085006, 51 (2009) 105008, Nucl. Fusion 51 (2011) 023004), is extended to describe diverted tokamak equilibria with nonzero edge current, including the Pfirsch–Schlüter(PS) cur- rent. The PS current density is expressed in a way suitable to describe a diverted tokamak configuration in the near separatrix region. The model equilibrium is expressed by only two terms of the exact separable solutions of the Grad– Shafranov equation, one of which is governed by a homogeneous ordinary differential equation, and the other by an inhomogeneous one. The particular merits of such a model configuration are that the internal region inside the separa- trix and a suitable scrape-off layer can be simultaneously described by this exact solution. To investigate the physics in the region near the X-point, the magnetic surfaces can be satisfactorily described by approximate hyperbolic curves.     

High-energy ions from near-critical density plasmas via magnetic vortex acceleration

Ultraintense laser pulses propagating in near-critical density plasmas generate magnetic dipole vortex structures. In the region of decreasing plasma density, the vortex expands both in forward and lateral directions. The magnetic field pressure pushes electrons and ions to form a density jump along the vortex axis and induces a longitudinal electric field. This structure moves together with the expanding dipole vortex. The background ions located ahead of the electric field are accelerated to high energies. The energy scaling of ions generated by this magnetic vortex acceleration mechanism is derived and corroborated using particle-in-cell simulations.     

A mechanism of emergence of Hamiltonian chaos in a basic quantum-optical model

A mechanism of emergence of Hamiltonian chaos is considered for the model describing the interaction between two-level atoms and their own radiation field in an ideal single-mode cavity. The analysis of the semiclassical Maxwell-Bloch equations shows that the Hamiltonian terms that are neglected in the rotating-wave approximation (RWA) give rise to the formation of a stochastic layer near the RWA-system separatrix. The Mel’nikov method is used to prove that the splitting of the separatrix takes place for arbitrarily small vacuum Rabi frequencies Ω_N. The computation of Poincare sections shows that the stochastic layer, which is exponentially narrow for small Ω _N, expands with increasing Ω_N, and at Ω_N ? 1, the system exhibits global chaos that manifests itself in irregular oscillation of the atomic population inversion and the broadening of the power spectrum. Promising candidates for observing manifestations of dynamic chaos in this basic quantum-optical system are Rydberg atoms placed in a high-Q superconducting microwave cavity.